Out of this World!

Since the beginning of the school year, my daughter Mikaila and I had been saving and planning for our journey to Space Camp in Hunstville, AL with her 5th grade class from Indian Hills Elementary.

Two weekends ago we made the trip and had a great time! I had wanted to go to Space Camp ever since I was a kid so it took very little time for me to agree to tag along as an parent sponsor.

I had childhood dreams of being an astronaut. I was a "trekkie" from an early age. Then when "Star Wars" came out in 1977, my yearning for travelling among the stars went supernova! Traveling to Space Camp is probably the closest I'll ever get to traveling through outer space, at least this side of eternity.

"I know I could fly this Apollo thing!"

As I read and studied the artifacts, explored the museum displays, and watched the IMAX films on space travel, I couldn't help but wonder what had inspired these space pioneers to reach for the stars. Movies had inspired me, but before movies, comic books of space travel, and Jules Verne novels, what had inspired them? I concluded that it had to have been the profound beauty of the heavens themselves. The moon on a clear night, and the stars on a moonless night, have no problem declaring the praises of the artist of the sky.

The Saturday night of Space Camp, one of the parents on the trip asked me if I would be willing to speak at an impromptu worship time on Sunday morning to the group of students and adults from the NLR schools who came on the trip (3 charter buses, one RV, and several personal vehicles worth). I spoke to the aspiring astronauts & scientists that next morning, not as a "pastor", but as Mikaila's dad and fellow trip member. I was moved by all that we had seen and heard and by the wonder of the Creator who had put it all "up there" in the first place.

I talked about the beauty and awesomeness of all we had seen and how the early dreamers and explorers must have been motivated to enter into space much like someone admiring a great painting dreams of escaping into the art itself. I then read the following verses from Psalms:

8:3-4 "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

102:25 "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."

I reminded all who were listening about the great distances between the earth and the moon, between the earth and the other planets, and between our solar system and other systems that we had all studied over the weekend.

I then shared that as awesome as it would be for one of them to travel to these very stars, it's even more awesome that the creator, the artist of the heavens, has a love for each one of us that goes beyond all of these great distances!

I then read again from Psalms:

103:11 "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;"

108:4 "For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies."

I then concluded with this challenge: "It's great to admire the art, but it's much greater to have a relationship with the artist. So keep studying and reaching for the stars, but whether you ever go there or not, reach out to the maker of the stars because He loves you, has gone to great lengths to show it, and he wants you to know him."

Do you know him?